Porquê

Cross breeding – Our environment is heterogeneous, our cities thrive on diversity, our lives enriched by surprises. We aim for our projects to transcend standard building categories, take part in the city, be places to meet, rooms to cherish, occasions to celebrate; permanent spaces for an uncertain future. We work in all sizes and all programmes to continuously be able think wider, bridging function, culture and environment.

Lateral thinking

São Paulo | Oslo – Cities we love, cities we live in, cities that define our DNA. Two cities of extremes, the world metropolis and one of the world’s smallest capitals. The opposition and the energy is what drive us. Locally we are in the culture; at a distance, we are able to be critical.

Glocal approach

SPOL is an international architect office, yet our approach is always locally anchored. We seek architectural visions with conceptual clarity, combined with a Scandinavian obsession for details, simplicity and pragmatism.

Bold thoughts with a light touch

SPOL´s method springs from an analytical research and design process with the aim to uncover the full potential of each brief. We are experienced, precise and professional. We work closely with our clients in developing unique solutions to each challenge, in advancing business plans into reality.

Straight forward and result oriented

O quê

SPOL is an international architectural office, practicing in architecture and urbanism; from strategies to design. SPOL is led by partners Adam Kurdahl and Jens Noach with offices in São Paulo and Oslo. SPOL Arquitetos in São Paulo is a direct continuation of Space Group Brasil, started in 2012 by partner in former Space Group, Adam Kurdahl. SPOL Arkitekter AS in Oslo is its new Nordic counterpart after the division of Space Group following the closure of Space Group Arkitekter AS in 2014. SPOL is our new common ground.

Como

As architects, we formalize the unimaginable. We love to be challenged, we dare to be bold. The office thrives on a broad spectrum of experiences and nationalities; we work on all scales and all phases of projects; with business plans and strategies, with design and buildings, with public spaces and large scale planning. The broad perspective makes us able to maintain the overview, to turn complexity into an asset for creativity.

We see every architectural project as part of its urban, economic and social context. We look for the unexpected, to provide more for the same; to create space, where none was requested, to dare to imagine a greater potential in the brief. Each project springs from a robust strategy that secures its endurance and affluence through the process of design adaption. We treat technical, economic, sustainability and legal constraints as active parameters, never as design alibies. The outset for all our projects is to remain expectant and ambitious with the goal to create excellence in architecture.

Our work strives to challenge the role of architecture and public space. From São Paulo to Oslo, we love the city, its past and its future. Our cities are going through radical transformation in their urban fabric; in Oslo, as a collective project, in São Paulo as an individualistic project. In Oslo, attempts of heroism in architecture are dwarfed by a Scandinavian obsession with consensus: regulated to be assimilated, rejecting the monumental, the individual and unique. In São Paulo, the collection of singular operations that makes up the city avoids the greater potential of the collective. From Oslo to São Paulo, investment, architecture and urbanism must embrace the collective obligations of the city while encouraging the heroic and rewarding risk. By challenging the today, we create the future cities of tomorrow.

We are passionate about beauty. Through the design process, volumetric relationships, architectural articulation, surfaces, patterns, materials, objects and details undergo close scrutiny to make the project a complete aesthetic experience.

The luxury of experience and competence allows us to remain playful yet focused. The management and staff of SPOL have a broad experience and have realized complex and large architectural projects. Our work experience includes dwellings: from private residences to neighborhood planning; offices: from spec to headquarters; culture: from exhibition design to institutions; education: from kindergartens to university; transport: from stations to infrastructure; hotels: from boutique to conference to resort; urban: from densification and transformation to new cities.

Quem

Adam Kurdahl born in Copenhagen, is Partner and Head of the Board of directors for SPOL. Adam Kurdahl was the founding partner of Space Group Brasil and led the office to the reconfiguring of the office as SPOL Architects in 2014. While still named Space Group, Kurdahl was in charge of several of the company’s best known and award winning projects like the Nedregate Culture District (Oslo City’s Architecture award) Clarion Hotel Trondheim (Choice of the Stars), Filipstad Masterplan and principle architect on the Award winning V-House (Houens Fund’s Diploma for outstanding architecture).

Adam Kurdahl studied Architecture and Urbanism at Delft University, the Netherlands and at Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark from where he received his master’s degree. In 2000 Adam Kurdahl won the first prize in the in the “ArchiPrix International” for his thesis project. Kurdahl has taught at The Royal Danish Art Academy in Copenhagen, Politecnico di Milano and Oslo School of Architecture.

Jens Noach MNAL RIBA is Partner and Managing Director of SPOL Oslo. Jens has a broad experience as a project manager, in handling large complex buildings and urban projects from Norway and Britain. In Oslo, this includes the transformation of the former Aker’s Mechanical at Aker Brygge and the New Oslo Central Station for Space Group Architects, and BI Campus Nydalen and Aker Hus at Fornebu for Niels Torp as.

Jens Noach studied Architecture and Urbanism at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway, and at the Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark, as well as the RIBA Part III at The Bartlett School of Architecture, London. Since taking his Master’s in 1993, he has lived and worked as an architect in Vienna, London and Oslo, last at Space Group from 2007 to 2014.